International Experience Essential for Marketing Leaders

AdAge.com explores the backgrounds of top marketing executives with insight from Andrew Hayes, Russell Reynolds Associates, on the benefits of working across international markets and staying connected with HQ during periods abroad.

"Tomorrow's CMO will have to have global and international experience. You can do it without living abroad ... but you have to get exposure to those markets. It opens your eyes to new ways of doing business, increases cultural sensitivity and increases flexibility," said Andrew Hayes, an executive director at recruiting firm Russell Reynolds Associates. "We're in a very different world today than we were even five years ago."

While marketers said the onus is on the exec to make an impact and remain visible to the folks at headquarters, companies are much more hands-on today when it comes to managing talent. "People used to go international and get lost in the system," said Russell Reynolds' Mr. Hayes, a former marketer who did stints in Malaysia and Singapore. "Companies are much more progressive now. They've got a game plan, a chessboard, mapped out, and they know where [talent] is going next."